Filial Loyalty
by punnylove
Summary: Because despite all the bickering, crushes, and imperfections of the detention "rejects" they're more of a family to each other than they are with their blood relatives. A look at the role each character plays in their little "family."


_Because every group that goes through life, love, and pain together is a family. ~ punnylove_

**1.** **LaRhettee**

Every group, (even this one), needs a mother, and when no one else volunteers, LaRhettee steps up. She helps Egypt with math, shoots hoops with Eddie, and sneaks in extra food whenever she can. When Ramos steals Sasha away for a dance and Danjou is left partner-less, she offers him her arm and forces him out of his funk and back on the dance floor. When Sasha needs another girl to talk to for love advice, LaRhettee, (who has dated and dumped both Ramos and Danjou), is willing to listen. And when she catches Big Girl with her finger down her throat in the bathroom, LaRhettee gives her some tips on eating healthy and threatens to call the principal if she catches the girl forcing herself to throw up again.

Sometimes, laying home at night and trying not to hear the sound of her mother working just two rooms away, she thinks wonders if anyone else thinks that it's ironic that it's the girl with a prostitute for a mother who turns out to be the most nurturing.

**2. Rock**

If LaRhettee is the mother of the group, then Rock supposes that he's the father. (They have been dating for six months straight.) His own father's worse than nonexistent, so Rock's forced to guess at what a real father acts like, and, most of the time, he's wondering whether he's doing stuff right. He threatens to punch in a druggie's face when he catches the punk trying to sell dope to Kurd, and when the white boy calls him out for being a dickhead, cuffs the younger boy over the head and says bluntly that he wasn't going to let anyone in his crew become a drug addict. He's the one who finally clears up the tension between Ramos, Sasha, and Danjou. It's actually really simple—he just shoves them all into a closet and locks the door. When the sounds of fighting stop, he gingerly unlocks the door, peeks in, and then walks away. The boys look like they're going to be busy for awhile anyway, and Sasha doesn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, alone in the basketball court with nothing in the world but himself and the ball, he wonders if he's doing the things fathers should do, and, if so, why his own father couldn't do the same thing.

**3. Egypt**

Egypt's the smart oldest sister of the group. It's no secret that Mr. Temple hates her because she publicly disses him in class and then forces him to give her perfect scores when she whips out a perfect test in less than half-an-hour. (He tries to accuse her of cheating, but then all her other teachers produce similarly perfect tests and he's forced to take back his accusation.) Egypt even isn't one of those "all work and no life" kind of girls—her brain just seems to retain things easier than other students. She's the responsible one of the group—making sure everyone turns in their homework because she "ain't going to fake seven term papers in one night 'cause y'all couldn't move your lazy asses." The boys leave her alone because she's able to return anything they can throw at her and has been known to shut down an unwelcome suitor in less than thirty seconds.

Sometimes, catching up on A.P. U.S. History, Egypt wonders why she bothers to study, and if all her work will ever get her out and away from her drug-addicted parents. But then she goes home, sees them passed out on the kitchen floor, and vows to herself that she will, because there's no way she's going to be as stupid as the people who raised her.

**4. Eddie**

If Egypt's the smart oldest sister, Eddie's the street-smart older brother who always has presents for the rest of his family. It's a rare day when he doesn't bring in some piece of equipment, whether it's new wheels for Ramos' board, new sound equipment, or earrings for the girls. The presents are also why he's in detention so much—good as he is, statistically speaking, he has to get caught a couple times. Eddie's ambidextrous, (able to use both hands perfectly), which makes him a master thief. But he's also got an apprenticeship at the best mechanics store in Manhattan—or he will once he's old enough to apply. Egypt helps him study trig and precalculus, (he's surprisingly good once he realizes that they actually teach him concepts that he'll use in Engineering.), and kisses him when he scores a near perfect on the SAT math section. (he kisses her back, because smart-ass older sister or no, he's had a crush on her since forever.)

Sometimes, watching his thirty-something older brother laze around the house and his mother's tired eyes, Eddie promises himself that he'll make something of himself. He's not going to be a burden on his family.

**5. Monster and Big Girl**

They're probably the closest the group has to twins, and despite being unwilling to dance with each other, the cousins have each others' backs. Monster's usually a pretty big pushover, but if he catches anyone, (dude or chick), harassing Big Girl, they'll have hell to pay, 'cause Monster's not two-hundred plus pounds for nothing. And Big Girl will _cut_ anyone who makes cracks about Monster's weight, 'cause she knows how it feels and it just ain't cool. When she stand up and tells Mr. Dulaine she's in for the competition, she does it with confidence because she knows Monster has her back. And when Monster needs advice about asking Caitlin out on an official date, Big Girl is the one to give him tips.

Sometimes, watching their parents scream at each other—Big Girl's parents with words and Monster's parents with disdainful looks—the cousins wonder how on earth they managed to get so close, and vow to never follow their parents' example.

**6. Danjou**

Danjou's the quiet, self-effacing middle child. Surprisingly polite and peaceful, he's often an oasis of calm in the constant action that characterizes their little family. Despite seemingly the closest one the group has to "normal," Danjou is a mass of contradictions, at once self-conscious and confidant, passive and passionate, easily discouraged and determined. He's clumsy, yet when he gets into a dance he's as graceful as the next kid—sometimes more. Danjou's never really expected too much from himself or challenged anyone else, so it's a surprise to everyone when he starts to pursue Sasha, despite Ramos' obvious claim on the girl.

Sometimes, late at night with Sasha on his left and Ramos on his right, he remembers his brother, who worked himself to death trying to get out of the slums and pushed everyone away—including his own family—to get his scholarship and his new life. And he swears never to be like him.

7. **Ramos**

He's the loud, confidant, and brash younger brother—fire to Danjou's water and Sasha's sensual winds. Ramos fights for everything and anything that he desires, from clothes, to wheels, to girls. He's probably the most experienced fighter in the group, and yet he is drawn to battle because of the competition, not the bloodshed, and because of that he still retains the passionate joy of youth. Ramos lives on the edge, risking everything whenever it seems he's finally gotten something to hold on to, and for that reason Sasha cannot give herself fully to him. In the end, she needs Danjou's calm to balance out Ramos' flames, and yet Danjou's gentleness would bore her without the constant presence of Ramos' passion. Ramos isn't too upset about the situation. After all, he figures, what was this relationship but a huge battle?

Sometimes, sweating after a particularly passionate tango with Sasha, Ramos goes home to his forever drunk uncle and wonders how such a talented man turned out to be such a passive loser? And he promises that he'll never follow in his uncle's footsteps.

**8. Sasha**

Sasha's pretty, vivacious, and the talented middle girl of the family. She knows she's not as pretty as LaRhettee, as smart as Egypt, or as sweet as Caitlin, but she can dance like there's no tomorrow and she holds on to that skill with all the desperation of someone who feels that she won't be loved any other way. (It's part of the reason she deals with the love triangle for so long—it made her feel wanted.) Out of all the girls, Sasha's probably the one with the most social life, (LaRhettee's busy with babysitting, Egypt with studying, Caitlin with her mother), and the most sought-after. After showers, she looks at her body and wonders if the boys would still come around if she looked like Big Girl, and despite LaRhettee's firm, "yes," Sasha still has doubts. So, she flirts, kissing Ramos but letting Danjou take her out for pizza, yelling at Ramos but leaving Danjou to dance with him anyway. The self-doubt would probably drive her mad, except that when she dances—she truly believes that she's beautiful and powerful and _loved_.

Sometimes, when her parents' fighting gets especially bad and her father leaves (_again_), and forgets the child support, (_the rich bastard_), she promises herself she isn't ever going to marry a man who loves her when she's pretty and dumps her when she's had kids and no longer model-thin.

**9. Kurd**

Despite all his efforts at seeming older, world-wise, and experienced, (especially with girls), Kurd's blatant sexuality reveals his youth rather than promote his mature front. He flirts outrageously—more often with girls who aren't interested—and hides the fact that he just wants to be admired like Ramos, respected like Rock, and liked like Eddie. When he's with a girl who looks at him that way, even for a couple moments, Kurd feels like he's flying, and not in a dope kinda way, which makes it so much harder to believe that out of all the girls, it's Big Girl who gives him a chance and sees past the outer shell and into the essence of who Kurd really is. But when he comes to terms with it, Kurd throws himself into the relationship head-first, and Big Girl is kinda tickled that, in reality, the boy's never even really had a girlfriend.

Sometimes, when he listens to his older siblings disrespecting his parents, he practices smirking in the mirror and tells himself he's never going to be talked to that way.

**10. Caitlin**

They let Caitlin into the group because she's different—an outcast reject, just like them, and by the end of the year she's like the tag-along, adopted, ('cause no matter how close they get, she ain't never gonna truly belong in the slums), baby sister. There's no way she can be seen as anyone but the youngest child, with her innocent naivety and persistent efforts to do everything the other kids do, and do them just as well. Caitlin doesn't let on, but she learns more from this family than her real one. LaRhettee teaches her sacrifice, Rock teaches her protection, Egypt, persistence; Eddie, dreams; Danjou, peace; Ramos, passion; Big Girl, loyalty; Sasha, power; Kurd, self-confidence. And when Monster smiles two feet down at her, she grins back up because the big, black boy in front of her taught her more about love than anyone who's blood-related to her.

Sometimes, when she watches her parent's perfect, (but never real), laughter, their practiced wittiness, and their inability to deal with anything less-than-perfect, Caitlin looks at her friends from the "bad side of Manhattan" and wonders why they're so much more accepting of her, clumsy inability to dance and all.

**11. Pierre**

Pierre Dulaine never realizes how lucky he is that they let him in to their tight-knit little world. (There were reasons that teachers hated detention duty, and more than one had gotten hurt after the family decided that they really didn't like him/her.) He doesn't know that he's the only one that's seen LaRhettee vulnerable, Rock struggling, Ramos hurt, and Kurd young. He doesn't understand that he's the only adult that Caitlin feels comfortable enough to give love advise to, and the first teacher that Big Girl's been able to believe in.

But always, when he watches them dance, he feels part of something—something far more real and powerful and beautiful than the professional dancers at his studio—and thanks the day that brought him into contact with the "lower part" of Manhattan.


End file.
